"Have you ever thought about doing some theater?"

Another amusing little story from the new job...

Today, as I was munching on lunch at my desk, a random stranger walked up to the window of the door to my office. A nice looking, older gentleman. Wearing a jogging suit and dark sunglasses.

"Excuse me," he said, "Sorry to interrupt your lunch. Do you have a second?"

I took a sip of water to clear my throat and turned around, ready to engage him in friendly assistance to whatever he might need.

"Sure. What can I do for you?", I asked.

"Well, my name is LOCAL PLAYWRIGHT and I do a lot of stuff here with MY THEATER." he said.

"Oh sure, I've heard the name," I added helpfully.

"Really?" he asked.

"Sure. Are you HIS NAME, the playwright?" I asked.

He looked a little stunned to be recognized. "Yes, that's me." He flipped up his sunglasses to get a better look at me with his unshaded glasses. I think he was trying to remember if he knew me from somewhere and had somehow forgotten me.

"Didn't you write THE NAME OF HIS PLAY?" I asked him.

"Holy Cow! Yes, I did! How do you KNOW all of this?" and he actually rocked back in the window a little bit, totally stunned. He held onto the lip of my window, to keep from falling backwards.

I explained, "Well, LOCAL THEATER COMPANY is producing that show in August, here at the theater. I prepared their contract earlier this week and they signed the contract yesterday. So, I've been processing the follow-up paperwork a lot since then. So, I've been looking at your name for two or three days now."

"Well, that makes sense. I guess that they would be doing the paperwork now for that run, wouldn't they?" he was recovering from the shock of being recognized. "You've got a really great memory for names and such."

We transitioned into his initial request. Making sure that a Jeff committee member had requested two tickets, instead of one for a show premiere on Monday. I called the box office. They didn't know. The producing company was tracking the reservations for their opening night.

I happened to know that their stage manager, a fellow employee of my theater, was in the mainstage and we went in there together, to ask her about the tickets. She was on her cell, wrapping up a call, which meant that the playwright and I had a minute more to chat.

"Have you ever thought about doing some theater?" he asked me, "With your memory, script retention would be a breeze and you've got a very warm personality. You'd be perfect for the stage."

"I actually do a little bit of comedy and improv around the city right now," and I told him about the April 5th Sickest Stories, because, well, it's the newest thing that I'm promoting right now AND because I frankly think that anyone could and should go see that show. He asked a few questions about the show format and I told him about it, until my co-worker ended her call and came over to talk to us. I introduced his question and left them to work it out.

He stopped back by my desk on his way out and said, "You should let the folks at the theater know that you're interested in doing some readings. I think you'd be really good for that. And you can help these playwrights really shape their new works in a really positive way. Look into it, okay?"

I said I would and he flipped down his sunglasses, waved briefly and was on his way. A nice little interlude in the middle of an otherwise boring, office work day.

Cheers,
Mr.B